Lifting device for container

ABSTRACT

The lifting device comprises a frame to which coupling members are provided to co-operate with attachment members located in the corners of the container. Each coupling member is capable of cooperating with an attachment member so that at a first reciprocal movement of the coupling member, coupling between the coupling member and the attachment member takes place, and so that at a further reciprocal movement of the coupling member the coupling member and the attachment member are uncoupled. The reciprocal movement is caused by the bottom end of the coupling member striking the bottom interior surface of the attachment member.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a lifting device for containers or the likewhich usually are parallelepiped and in certain cases are designedaccording to international standards.

The use of such containers for transporting goods of many kinds hasduring the last few years increased to an especially high degree. Thehandling of containers at goods depots, ports, etc. has increased to acorresponding degree.

The handling of containers or other unit loads takes place in severalways, depending on several factors, for example the conditions at theport and the type of ship. Also the extent of the move is an influence.

When a fork lift truck is used, as is usual, the container is providedin connection to its bottom, with tunnels for the forks. Top lift orside lift frames also are used, and a locking of the lift frame to thecontainer proper often is effected by means of hydraulics, which is anexpensive solution, because it requires an external power source and canbe less attractive from a safety point of view.

For transport, cranes of different types can be used, for example whenmovement from a quay to the hold of a ship is concerned. The couplingbetween the crane and container then is effected by ropes, wires or thelike provided with hooks. Cranes of a gripper type are also used. Allthe different methods of crane lifting have in common that the couplingoperation involves manual movements. The same, of course, also appliesto the uncoupling between the crane and container. At many handlingplaces, for obvious reasons, the manual work also is risky to someextent.

There is, thus, a great need for a well-operating lifting device, whichpermits automatic coupling and uncoupling between crane and container orbetween fork lift truck with lift frame and container. The presentinvention relates to a lifting device of the aforesaid kind. In the caseof fork lift truck, the invention implies that coupling and uncouplingcan take place without requiring an external power source, at the sametime the lifting device is highly satisfactory from a safety point ofview. In the case of a crane, substantially all of the manual movementsof coupling and uncoupling are eliminated, which is desirable from asafety point of view, and further, reduces labor demand and thereby thehandling costs.

A further advantage of the lifting device according to the presentinvention is that it can be used with a container design, which is notchanged compared with that of to-day. This design must be regarded as asubstantially absolute requirement, because the design of containersto-day is highly standardized. This applies especially to so-calledISO-containers, which are designed according to international standards,are used for international transport and are exchanged between differentcountries.

A lifting device for the purpose here concerned further must meet highrequirements of operational safety and at the same time the need formaintenance shall be small. A lifting device according to the presentinvention can be expected to be very safe in operation and requiresmaintenance to a very limited extent.

The present invention, thus, relates to a lifting device for a containeror the like.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is characterized in that it comprises a frame, inconnection with coupling means are provided to co-operate withattachment members located in the corners of the container. Eachcoupling means comprises a coupling member and is capable through thecoupling member to co-operate with an attachment member in such amanner, that at a first reciprocatory movement of the coupling memberthe coupling means and the attachment member are coupled together andthat at a further reciprocatory movement of the coupling member thecoupling means and attachment member are uncoupled.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention is described in greater detail in the following, withreference to to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a lifting device according to the presentinvention and a container, seen in the side elevation along one longside of the container.

FIG. 2 shows the lifting device and the container according to FIG. 1,seen from above in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of an attachment member associated with acontainer.

FIG. 4 shows a coupling means according to the present invention, whereone sidewall has been removed, and is a lateral view of an attachmentmember according to FIG. 3 where the coupling means is in position forbeing coupled to the attachment member.

FIG. 5 shows the coupling means and the attachment member according toFIG. 4, with the difference that the coupled-together position is shown.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

In FIG. 1 the numeral 1 designates a schematically shown container ofISO-type having dimensions of 20'×8'×8'6", seen in side elevation alongone of its long sides, to which container an embodiment of the inventionis applied by way of example. The container 1 is provided in its cornerswith attachment members 2 connected to its upper side 3 and withattachment members 4 connected to its lower side 5. In the applicationof the present invention, the attachments 2 connected to the upper side3 of the container are utilized.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, the lifting devicecomprises a frame 6 consisting of four arms 7 arranged in one plane, alift rod 8 attached in a suitable way to the arms and intended to beconnected in a suitable way to a crane or the like, and supportingstruts 9 between the arms 7 and lift rod 8. At the free end of each ofthe arms 7, coupling means 10 are provided.

The arms 7 are arranged so that the relative distances between thecoupling means 10 are equal to the relative distances between theattachment members 2, in order to render it possible to couple togethersaid coupling means 10 and the attachment members 2 when the liftingdevice is positioned in relation to the container 1 in the way intended,as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, i.e. so that a coupling means 10 connects toeach attachment member 2.

In the case of a fork lift truck, the frame 6 corresponds to a liftframe of a top lift or side lift type. Lift frames of this kind, forexample, may consist of a rectangular frame with four corners or of abeam with two ends. The frame and, respectively, beam may be eitherfixed or designed so that its extension can be varied, for examplehydraulically. Coupling means 10 in this case preferably are arranged inconnection to the frame corners or beam ends.

In FIG. 3 the attachment member 2 is shown. The attachment member 2 isof standard type and on its exterior upper side wall 12 is provided witha continuous oblong hole 13, the longitudinal direction of which is inparallel with the longitudinal direction of the container. Theattachment member 2 is in principle a parallelepipedic shell. Theattachment member further is provided on its two exterior free sidewalls 14 with oblong holes 15 corresponding to the hole 13 andcontinuous in a vertical direction.

FIG. 4 is a lateral view of the coupling means 10 where a sidewall 17 ofthe coupling means has been removed, and the attachment member 2 is seenin the direction along the long side 18 of the container 1.

The coupling means comprise a coupling member 19, which in theembodiment here preferred, consists of a substantially cylindric axle19, which is rotatably and axially movably mounted in an upper tubularsleeve 20 and a lower tubular sleeve 21, as shown in FIG. 4.

Each sleeve 20,21 is toothed at one end 22 and has four teeth 23 equallyspaced along the circumference of the sleeve.

The sleeves 20,21 are arranged in a parallelepipedic holder withsidewalls 24, an upper side 25 and a bottom 26. The sleeves 20,21 areprovided with flanges 27,28 with the flange 27 of the lower sleeve 21abutting and in a suitable way being attached to the bottom 26, and withthe flange of the sleeve 20 abutting and in a suitable way beingattached to the upper side 25 via a hole 29 in the upper side 25, asappears from FIG. 4.

The sleeves 20,21 are aligned with their longitudinal axes aligned withone another in such a manner, that said toothed ends are located asuitable distance from and facing toward each other, and so that theteeth of one sleeve are offset about 45° in a peripheral orcircumferential direction from the teeth of the other sleeve 20,21.

The axle 19, on the portion 30 intended to be located in the holder24,25,26, is provided with preferably two substantially cylindricalpivots 31, which are directed radially and project from the shellsurface of the axle 19. Said pivots 31 are capable of a rest positionshown in FIG. 4 and in a lift position shown in FIG. 5 to rest on thetooth bottom 32 between two adjacent teeth 23. The pivots 31 further arecapable during a reciprocatory movement or displacement of said axle 19in its axial direction to co-operate with said teeth, where the teethhave one side 33 in parallel with the axial direction of the axle 19 andone side 34 forming an angle of about 30° with said axial direction, sothat the axle 19 is caused to rotate through substantially 90°. The axle19, thus, rotates through 90° in a definite and always the samedirection for each reciprocatory cycle of the axle 19, as is apparentfrom FIG. 4.

The axle 19, at its end 35 which is located outside the holder 24,25,26and which co-operates with an attachment 2, is provided with flanges 36of flat design, for example of an arrow point shape, as shown in FIGS. 4and 5. Said end 35 is dimensioned of being capable to be introduced intothe hole 13 in the attachment member 2 so that the flanges 36 by theirextension relative to the width of the hole 13 prevent said end 35 frombeing removed out of the attachment member 2 when the axle 19 has beeninserted into the hole 13 and has been rotated through about 90°.

The lifting device according to the invention operates as follows. Thelifting device which is to be coupled together with a container, isbrought near to the container 1 and positioned in relation thereto asshown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The axle ends 35 then have a position relativeto the longitudinal direction of the holes 13 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 4.The lifting device is lowered so that the axle ends 35 are introducedinto the holes 13 and so, that the ends 35 are pressed against theinterior bottom wall 37 of the attachment members 2. The axles 19thereby are moved in the sleeves 20,21, and the pivots 31 co-operatewith the teeth 23 so that the axles 19 are caused to rotate throughabout 90°. Thus, the flanges 36 simultaneously are rotated in relationto the longitudinal direction of the holes 13, so that the axle ends nolonger may be moved out of the holes 13.

When the lifting device is lifted by a crane, the flanges 36, thus, abutthe inside 38 of the upper side 12 of the attachment members 2, as shownin FIG. 5.

When the container 1 has been positioned in the desired place, thelifting device is lowered so that the ends 35 again are pressed againstthe interior bottom wall 37 of the attachment members 2. The axles 19thereby are moved again and caused to rotate through about 90°,whereafter the axle ends 35 can be removed from the holes 13.

As has been apparent from above, a lifting device according to thepresent invention renders it possible that coupling and uncouplingbetween lifting device and container can take place fully automatically,i.e. without manual operation. The construction, furthermore, is verysimple, reliable in operation and can be simply adapted to standardizedattachment design of containers.

It is obvious that a great number of embodiments of a lifting deviceaccording to the present invention can be imagined within the scope ofthe invention idea.

The axle 19, thus, in an obvious way can be spring-loaded whereby theoperation reliability is increased and which also renders operationpossible when the longitudinal direction of the axle 19 and the couplingmeans 10 are substantially horizontal and not vertical as in theembodiment described above. By spring-loading the axle 19 and bysuitably designing the coupling means 10 in general as well as the frame6, thus, the lifting device according to the invention can be coupled tocontainers also from directions other than from above, for example fromthe side. It is thus obvious that the invention also can be applied forlifting by fork lift trucks having a lift frame of the top lift and sidelift type, in which connection the coupling means 10 preferably arearranged in connection to the corners or ends of the frames.

The frame 6, further, can be designed in several different ways, forexample as a rectangular frame or as a substantially straight beam withonly two ends having coupling means 10, where coupling takes place toonly two, preferably diagonal ones of the attachment members 2 of thecontainer 1.

The described lift rod 8 can be designed in several ways, for examplewith a means for gravity centering for lifting by a crane. For liftingby a lift fork truck the lift rod preferably is replaced by a recess inthe lift frame.

The number of pivots 31 on the axles 19 can be varied from one to fourpivots with the embodiment of the sleeves 20,21 described above.

The holder 24,25,26 for the sleeves 20,21 also can be designed so thatthe sleeves and the portion of the axle 19 co-operating with the sleevesare commpletely encased.

The axle ends 35, further, can be designed in a different way, forexample more "robustly", in order to obtain an optimum design from astrength point of view.

The invention, thus, must not be regarded restricted to the embodimentdescribed above, but can be varied within the scope of the attachedclaims.

I claim:
 1. A lifting system for lifting parallelepiped containers,comprising:attachment means secured to the container at the corners ofthe container, each attachment means defining a shell including at leastan exterior side wall and an opposed interior side wall, the exteriorside wall including an oblong hole therethrough; a frame; coupling meansattached to the frame for co-operating with each attachment means tocouple the frame to the container and to uncouple the frame from thecontainer, the coupling means including upper and lower tubular sleevespaced from one another and fixed on the frame with their longitudinalaxes aligned with one another, the sleeves include teeth uniformlyspaced around their circumferences and facing one another, the teeth ofone sleeve being offset about 45° in a circumferential direction to theteeth of the other sleeve, the coupling means including a couplingmember which is cylindrical and which is mounted in the sleeves to berotatably and axially movable therein, the coupling member includes tworadially projecting pivots arranged between the teeth of the sleeves,the pivots and teeth co-operating so that for every up and downreciprocal cycle of the coupling member in an axial direction, thecoupling member is rotated about 90°, the coupling member further beingprovided with an arrow point shaped lower end having upper oblongflanges dimensioned to pass through the oblong hole of the attachmentmeans in one rotational position of the coupling member and capable ofbeing retained in the attachment means when the coupling member isrotated about 90° from the one rotational position, the arrow pointshaped lower end having a downwardly directed substantially pointed tip,the lower end of the coupling member extending a sufficient distance topass through the oblong hole and engage the substantially pointed tipagainst the opposed interior wall in substantially point contact tocause reciprocal movement of the coupling member within the sleeves androtational movement about the point contact between the tip and theinterior wall as the frame is moved in a reciprocating manner adjacentthe container; so that as the frame is moved towards the container, thelower ends of all of the coupling members pass through the oblong holesof the attachment means and the substantially pointed tips engageagainst the opposed interior walls of the attachment means to cause thecoupling members to rotate 90° about the tips for every cycle due to theco-operation between the pivots and toothed sleeves, the frame then ismoved away from the container and the flanges of the coupling membersare retained in the attachment means to couple the frame and containertogether, the frame then is moved towards the container to engage thesubstantially pointed tips of the lower ends of the coupling membersagainst the opposed interior walls to cause the coupling members torotate about 90° and the frame is moved away from the container toremove the coupling members through the oblong holes to uncouple theframe and container from one another so that a great force may beapplied to the frame to couple and uncouple the container.